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Mike Quade Suggests that Some Players Have Been Dogging It and Other Bullets

By my count, the Cubs will lose 8-2 today. And then they head to Philadelphia, where they’ll face Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Roy Oswalt. Yo.

Mike Quade, not meaning to, actually agreed in part with Bob Brenly’s assertion that the Cubs were a “dead-ass team.” Here’s how Quade responded: “One thing I don’t like to do is paint a whole group with a broad brush. Most of the names on this team I don’t associate with dead-ass at all. Guys play with different energy levels.” I’m sorry, most of the guys are dead-ass players? So Quade is saying that some of the current Cubs are dogging it. I don’t think we have to guess to hard to come up with at least one of those names.

Carlos Marmol is working with Mark Riggins to regain some of the sharpness on his slider. That’s nice. But what about the velocity on his fastball, which has taken a sudden and stark dip in recent months? I hate to suggest the sky is falling, but if Marmol is completely healthy, I’d be surprised.

How about this for great news? Angel Guzman is going to make his professional debut this year with the Peoria Chiefs, to whose roster he was added yesterday. Guzman, rehabbing from serious, career-threatening shoulder surgery, had been in extended Spring Training. The Cubs wouldn’t send him to one of their minor league teams unless they had hopes he might be able to work his way back to the big club.

Doug Davis, who stunk up the joint last night to drop to 0-5 on the season, sounds like he isn’t too pleased with Carlos Zambrano. “It’s just when you’re going bad, everybody wants to point the finger. Whether or not it has to do with Z or not, and this doesn’t, all I’m saying is that when things go bad, you want to point the finger and figure out what the heck is wrong. What you have to do is look in the mirror and say, ‘What if I played harder. What if I was a better teammate today.’ I’m not pointing anybody out or anything like that. I kind of feel for Zambrano when he did that. I know he doesn’t want to say that. But when you do, it’s because [stuff] has gone bad. You just want to turn it around.” Davis also suggested that Z’s comments should have been kept in-house.

Things are good in the clubhouse, though, it seems – the team bonded yesterday while watching ‘The Hangover 2’ in the clubhouse. Must’ve been one of those early-early-release DVDs…

I said it the day the Cubs promoted him, and it’s only proved true: the decision to promote DJ LeMahieu while he was scorching hot in AA rather than a career minor leaguer like Bobby Scales demonstrates how inept this organization is. I can’t think of another organization that would so consistently promote top prospects only to have them sit on the bench. Thank God the Cubs haven’t promoted Brett Jackson yet. LeMahieu has been given just one start and seven total at bats since he came up a week and a half ago. He’s twenty-freaking-two.

Speaking of prospects, 21-year-old pitching prospect Dallas Beeler – a kid the Cubs got in the 41st round of last year’s draft because he’d undergone Tommy John surgery in mid-2009 – was recently promoted from A ball Peoria to AA Tennessee, skipping over High A Daytona. That’s a pretty serious promotion, and suggests he’s a kid we should keep our eye on. He was sporting a 2.08 ERA in nine games at Peoria, and threw six scoreless innings (seven hits, no walks, four Ks) in his AA debut.

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